I'm a lot less cranky when it's just me and my dog.
I gotta say, Pluto is such a great character, and if I ever got to work with him, I'd be very happy. The scene where he gets caught in fly paper, he's such a great dog!
I've owned a lot of dogs in my life - Marcela, Rusty, Petey Pup, Precious, Rosy and Ava. Each were in love with life's simple pleasures, but being people in dog suits, as they seem to be, they each had a defined personality!
The wonderful thing about the talking dog collars in 'UP' is that we were able to hear the thoughts of the dogs without moving their mouths or emoting like a human. The dogs could pant, scratch, and move the way dogs truly do. The animators studied the movements of many dogs, and we had a dog specialist come in and talk to us about dog behavior.
My cartoon strips in college strived to have the Schulzian mix of surrealism and Charlie Brown angst. A bit of that combo shows up in 'Up.'